How to Watch The Original Backrooms Movie (For Free)
Horror fans with a penchant for unsettling, eerie vibes are very excited for the release of Kane Parsons’ feature directorial debut, Backrooms. And whether you’re one of them or not, you should be, too.
The 20-year-old filmmaking prodigy is backed by A24 for this project, while top-tier actors Chiwetel Ejiofor and Renate Reinsve are the stars of the film. Not a bad way to make your first mark on the industry.
What is Backrooms, and where did this concept come from? Here, we explain the viral phenomenon and where you can watch the creepy short film that started it all.
What is The Backrooms?
Grainy, glitchy, handheld camcorder footage. Never-ending, seemingly inescapable liminal spaces. Weird, inexplicable creatures lurking behind every corner. The Backrooms is a surrealist, anxiety-inducing nightmare, to put it simply.
The concept behind Backrooms originated on a 4chan thread in 2019, wherein users discussed and created worlds within worlds and the entities that inhabit them. This trend actually has the online ‘creepypasta’ subculture to thank for its existence – in particular, one mysterious, unsettling image of a large, carpeted room under fluorescent lighting and strange yellow walls creeping everybody in 2011.
Creepypasta stories spread like wildfire in the years that followed, but The Backrooms was the one example that really stood out from the rest. With its maze of different “levels” and an intense fandom, the scope for creativity within this trend was, ironically, limitless.
It was Kane Parsons, at the age of 16, who took things to the next level. In 2022, he uploaded a short film that would break the internet. Now, he’s been allowed to stretch his bizarre story even further with his feature-length debut.
How to Watch The Original ‘Backrooms’ Short
You can watch the original short film, titled The Backrooms (Found Footage), on YouTube right here. Parsons originally posted the short under his online alias, Kane Pixels.
It’s just under ten minutes long, and if you’re at all interested in internet culture or unique subgenres of horror, it’s a must-watch. In the short film, a film crew is shooting a project when one of them slips into the titular space to navigate towards an exit while avoiding the monstrous creatures prowling around.
I was a little bit apprehensive the first time I sat down to watch this, but I would say The Backrooms is not too scary at all. It’s unnerving and definitely gives you the chills, but you’re likely to feel more of an uneasy sensation rather than being genuinely terrified. I recommend turning down the lights, putting on some headphones, and really immersing yourself in this strange experience.
Check Out These Similar Movies to The Backrooms
If this super-short film isn’t enough to satisfy your cravings for the uncanny, and you just can’t wait for Backrooms to be released at the end of May, other movies out there will help you scratch that itch.
Most recently, Undertone has had movie fans talking, largely for the way it utilises sound and technology to tell its spine-tingling tale of demonic possession and family trauma. While Undertone certainly has a narrative running through it, it still offers viewers a similar sensory overload to the experience of watching The Backrooms.
The closest thing to that original short film – at least before Backrooms – is Skinamarink. It’s an hour and 40 minutes of grainy footage as two children awake in the night to find their father missing, and all the exits in their home are gone, too. It’s very abstract and claustrophobic, but be warned: if you’re after any kind of cohesive story, this is not the place to look.
Finally, I Saw the TV Glow is a highly intriguing exploration of adolescence, sexuality, and the supernatural. It’s a truly transportive tale, too, and I don’t mean that figuratively. The characters in this film slip between realities, entering different dimensions that never feel quite right, while confronting devilish foes along the way. It’s an atmospheric, neon-soaked adventure that’ll get under your skin, in the best kind of way.
